Song of the Foxes
by Wretched Yuri
Summary: Daisuke Karuma is a Hanyou, a child of Kyuubi no Kitsune. After a massacre almost completely wipes out her clan, she and her few family members surviving seek refuge with her father Jiraiya's people in Konohagakure. Can Karuma protect her new home with her new comrades against evil and ensure that her youngest brother gets the chance to become the greatest Hokage living?
1. Chapter 1

**PART 1**

**Chapter 1: Death in the Family.**

Daisuke Mishota was not in a good mood. Her Clan had been attacked, and most of them wiped out. All that was left was her, her two children and her niece, who had luckily been safely away in Konohagakure. The Daisuke Clan, children of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, were fox Hanyou. Meaning they turned into foxes at the full moon, and after a certain age, could turn into a fox whenever they wished. In their humanoid forms, they still retained some fox like qualities, namely whisker marks on their cheeks, long claw like nails, elongated canines and pointed ears. It was raining, which made her mood worse than it already was. She was running in her humanoid form, her long red hair pulled up in a tight bun, her dress soaked, but at least the scrolls on her back were dry. They contained the history of her clan, all that was important to them, memoirs of her family and people, photos, money and other necessities, including food and water.

Her purple eyes slid in the direction of her children. Karuma, her 16 year old daughter was in her fox form voluntarily, her sleek red fur drenched. She was a large fox, with her head reaching her father's hip when she sat as a fox and he stood up straight. Being a Hanyou fox, she could change her size to suit her wants. Her tail swished through the air as she used it to help herself balance as she leapt gracefully from tree branch to tree branch. Seated on her back, clinging to her fur, was her two year old brother. With his blonde messy hair drenched and framing his face, Mishota couldn't help but worry he'd catch cold. It was at times like this, when Mishota wished that her husband Jiraiya wasn't a wanderer. He wasn't of the Daisuke Clan, in fact he was an orphan of the village Konohagakure, but he and Mishota had fallen in love, just before he vanished on some mission. From that time 16 years ago, her daughter Karuma, an accident child, had appeared. Mishota had known that he'd had another child with his teammate in a night of drunken regret years before meeting Mishota, and she was also aware that that child had just became the Hokage of Konohagakure.

But, when Jiraiya and Mishota had re-met four years previously, they had found that they were still very much attracted to each other. This led to their marriage and their son Naruto being born. But, Jiraiya was still a Konoha ninja, and was the best in his village at infiltration missions. Which was why, she was running away with her children without the aid of her husband. She knew that she could go to his village, and her step-son would help them, but Naruto needed to learn to protect himself, and go through the sticky stages of transformation, away from normal humans.

No, she decided. She would leave, and take her children somewhere safe and hide them. Then she would write to Jiraiya. And so she and her two children pushed on through the night, moving with the eerie speed of their people, that many ninja never acquired.

Minato had mourned with his father when word of the Daisuke Clan's massacre reached Konoha. The clan had recently begun preparing to move to Konoha and settle down there, thanks to the Clan Head marrying the Gama Sannin Jiraiya. Now however, it seemed only Daisuke Saya, married to Hyuuga Hiashi, was the sole survivor. Minato understood his father's grief. Jiraiya had loved Daisuke Mishota with all of his heart. It had been she who had nursed his broken heart after Minato's mother, Senju Tsunade, had left him and the village for good. Minato had also mourned the loss of his two half-siblings. He'd never met them, but Jiraiya had always regaled his oldest child with tales about their doings.

So, when a letter arrived with his father's name on it, he was not prepared for Jiraiya's reaction. He probably also shouldn't have given him the letter when he arrived in the council meeting. Jiraiya took one look at the handwriting on the front of the envelope and ripped it open, scrambling to read its contents. He burst into tears as he did. People stared. They had never seen Jiraiya cry. Ever.

"Tousan?" Minato ventured cautiously out from behind his seat at the head of the council and over to his father, who instantly caught him up in a huge hug, laughing with delight as he spun his son around.

"They're alive!" Jiraiya bellowed, hugging his son as happy tears poured down his face. "Mishota, Karuma and little Naruto are alive!" He was so happy he thought he would burst. A delighted smile spread across his son's face.

"That's great Tousan!" He told his father as the man put him down on the ground, pounding Jiraiya on the back. "Are they going to come here?" Jiraiya shook his head as he continued reading the letter.

"Not right now. Naruto goes through his first transformation soon, and Mishota wants him away from people when it happens. She does tell me where they are though, so if it's okay with you son, _I_ am going to go see my tsuma and your siblings." Minato nodded at him.

"Of course Tousan go. They'll have need of you." His father picked him up in another bone crushing hug before vanishing into thin air. Minato gasped for air as he leant against the council table. "Dear Kami I think Tousan should watch his strength." He mumbled before sitting down again, a smile on his face. He would still get the chance to meet his siblings.

Their little home in Mist Country was isolated, but well hidden in the forest up in the mountains. Mishota was painting the walls, while little Naruto, now 3, learnt chakra control, searching for the treats his father had hidden up trees, on top of cupboards, on large rocks and other high places. Jiraiya, keeping a watchful eye on his son, was fixing the roof. His daughter, Karuma, now 17, was off at the nearest town, doing the grocery shopping, and then she was going to go hunting in the forest for their meat just as soon as she dropped the food off at the house. Jiraiya glanced at the vegie garden out in the back yard. That was his wife and daughter's pride and joy. The two had worked at that garden of theirs for months, getting the soil fertile enough that they could plant vegetables there. The sounds of someone approaching caught his attention, and he glanced over his shoulder as his daughter appeared, dropping down from the tree she'd just landed in, the shopping being carried in the scroll on her back. With her long red hair, she looked a lot like her mother. She had two long bangs framing either side of her face with short red bangs falling across her face and forehead in a side fringe style. Her hair was longer than her father's hair, which reached his waist, and hers was tied up in a high ponytail, falling down her back in a sleek gossamer red tail of hair. While her little brother had three whisker marks on each cheek as an indication of being a Hanyou, Karuma's oddly mismatched eyes were the indication of being a Hanyou. One eye was the same startling purple as her mother's eyes, and the other the same cerulean blue that her brothers had been born with. However, the colour wasn't what marked her as a Hanyou. Under her eyes, she had been born with the same markings as Jiraiya, only hers were black, and when they reached the far corners of her eyes, the black markings continued at the rim of the top lid of her eyes, making them narrowed and fox-like. Like all girls, her eyes were large and framed with long thick lashes, which only served to further accentuate the foxiness of her eyes. She was tall like Jiraiya, but a tad shorter than her brother Minato. One of her pointed ears was pierced at the tip, with a chain, dangling from that piercing to one at the top of her lobe, with a second loop of chain connected between that piercing and a piercing at the bottom of her earlobe. She was dressed simply, in a black short shirt, short-sleeved, kimono with black pants. The hem of shirt and pants were both red, and a red cloth belt was tied around her waist slightly to one side, the ends dangling down towards her knee, with small metal balls tied to the ends. She used the tie as a weapon, with its small metal bells tied at the end doing surprising damage when they hit someone. Under her clothes, she wore mesh armour, which could be seen covering her chest and down to her wrists on her arms. Dangling on a woven piece of leather, resting against her chest, was a fox tooth. Not just any fox tooth though; this was one of _Kyuubi's_ teeth. Situated on different places from the leather, were small, coloured crystals. This was the necklace that signified the Clan heir or heiress. Her pants were tucked into her knee high open toed shinobi boots.

"Oneechan!" Naruto yelled, jumping from the roof where he'd been standing next to Jiraiya and running towards his big sister. Karuma caught him up in her arms, laughing at her little brother. Jiraiya tilted his head slightly, a smile tugging at his lips. He was a very lucky man he decided. He was married to a beautiful woman. His oldest child was married, expecting a baby and the Hokage of a village. His daughter was everything her mother had wanted for her to be, and the perfect heiress to rebuild the Daisuke Clan, and his youngest son was simply the happiest child he'd ever met. A somewhat quiet and withdrawn child unless around his sister, but happy none the less. "Oneechan will you play with me?!" Naruto begged her, pouting cutely and giving her puppy dog eyes.

"In a little while Itouto-kun. I have to go get some meat for the week, and then I can play okay?" Naruto pouted again and crossed his arms but nodded. Karuma put him gently down on the ground and he raced over to the front door, where his mother appeared, wiping her hands on her apron, with paint streaked all across her face, hands and arms. Karuma waved up at her father before following her mother and brother into the house. When she reappeared, it was as a large red fox. She shook out her fur, yipped up at her watching father and raced away into the forest. Jiraiya shook his head in amusement and went back to fixing the roof. He could hear his wife and son talking in the house below him, the sun was shining, and for one of the few times in his life, Jiraiya felt completely and utterly at peace. He whistled a jaunty tune as he worked, his mind spinning with ideas for a new novel.

"Breathe in. Hold it. Breathe out." Karuma followed her father's instructions, his warm voice soothing and gentle. She kept her eyes closed her hands resting limply on her crossed legs as she relaxed, emptying her mind and sinking into meditation. To be able to feel shizen eneruji (natural energy) and absorb it, one had to be meditating, allowing themselves to become one with nature. For most people, attempting something like this should only be done only a place like Toad Mountain, where the toad summons resided. For people who had already acquired Sennin mode, like her and her father, it was simply habit. His voice slowly faded, becoming background noise as she sank deeper and deeper into her meditation. She enjoyed meditating. It was peaceful. During the full moon, when she reverted to her natural fox form for a whole 2 nights and a day, she would often meditate, partly from boredom at not being able to shift back into her human form, and to sooth her demonic side, that side that all Hanyou had.

"ONEECHAN!" A small force hit her side and knocked her over, jolting her out of her meditative state. Luckily for the little boy, the fact that he had yelled 'Oneechan' as he jumped her saved him from sudden imminent death. She sat up, rubbing the side of her head where she'd hit the ground and glared slightly at her brother, who just grinned up at her, his big blue eyes glowing. She sighed and put him in a headlock lightly, digging the knuckles of her free hand through his hair on his head lightly, giving him a gentle noogie.

"Didn't Tousan tell you not to interrupt people when they're meditating?" She scolded him lightly.

"But this is _important_." He whined in protest, trying unsuccessfully to free himself from his big sister's grasp. He adored his older sister. He was an incredibly intelligent kid, and before his family had had to run away, he had seen the way that the older siblings of other kids his age, refused to play with their little brothers and sisters. Karuma always had time to play with him and if she didn't then she made time for him. He'd asked his parents why she did that recently, the four year old boy looking curiously up at his mother and father as they sat in the lounge room together, Karuma off in the forest training. His mother and father had shared a glance before looking back at him.

"Who else would you play with?" His father asked. Naruto had shrugged. "I don't know. I'd just play by myself I guess." His father nodded. "Your Oneechan knows that, and she knows that you might get lonely with no one else to play with, so she tries to play with you as often as possible so that you don't get lonely." Naruto had nodded at that, only slightly understanding it, but knowing that it didn't matter as long as his Oneechan wanted to play with him.

"What's so important that you had to interrupt my meditation huh?" She asked him, pulling him from his train of thoughts.

"We're going travelling!" He told her with a grin. She blinked at that, her grip going slightly slack on him.

"Travelling?" She glanced over at her parents, who were watching the exchange.

"We thought some time with other people might do you and Naruto some good, especially now that he's gone through his first transformation. There are some people skills he needs to learn before we move to the village as well." _'That's right. We're not staying here forever.'_ Karuma's eyes slid slowly over their home of the past two years. Like most young people, she liked being around others, but testimony to her solitary fox instincts, she loved the little cottage they lived in. _'Maybe Kaasan and Tousan will let me own this place? Then I can come back whenever. That'd be nice.'_ She stood up slowly, changing her grip on her little brother and hoisting him up onto her shoulders. He gripped her hair gently between his hands, feeling completely safe at such a height as her hands closed gently but firmly over his little feet, keeping him up on her shoulders. Jiraiya and Mishota both noted the somewhat sad look on Karuma's face. That only cemented their belief that it was time to go do new things. She was becoming too solitary, even for a Daisuke. Naruto scurried down from her shoulders when Mishota told him she'd help him pack, and Jiraiya moved over to Karuma, resting his hands on his daughter's shoulders. She leaned back against him, one slim reaching up to cover her father's.

"This house will still be here Karu-chan. I've sealed it against damage. It's hidden to anyone but us and those we trust. It will be here whenever you need it." He told her quietly. She relaxed slightly at that. "But, Naruto is not the only one who needs time around people. You're becoming too solitary musume, even for a Daisuke. At 18, you should be thinking about marriage, being a normal teenager and what you're next mission is. You're not so good with people anymore. You spend all your time with us, or out in the forest meditating." He was right, and she knew it.

"You might even have some fun. We'll go different places, see different things. Now that they're not hunting for any remaining Daisuke as diligently, it's safe for us to do so." She nodded and turned to hug her Otousan.

"Arigato Tousan." She breathed, resting her head on his chest before pulling away and going into the house to pack. Jiraiya remained outside a while longer, looking over the house. He could understand why Karuma was so against leaving. The past two years here had honestly been the happiest in his entire life, but they couldn't stay forever, and like he'd told Karuma, the house would still be there.

"Neh Oneechan? Why are those boys looking at you like that?" Naruto asked his older sister, looking up at her as she walked hand in hand with her younger brother through the festival some town was holding. She looked down at him before glancing over at the group of young men who, noticing that she was looking at them, made gestures and expressions, inviting her over. She felt her lip curl slightly in disgust. She was no stranger to sex. She was after all, a Hanyou, and they had some of the strongest libidos around. But, she was picky about her mates, especially now that she was old enough that things like Kits and raising a family were becoming important to her. None of those young men interested her in the slightest. Sniffing lightly she sneezed. They all smelt of sex, unwashed young male, and some kind of greasy food. The combined smells made her stomach roll over in protest. She turned her attention back to her brother, who was looking between her and the men curiously.

"Because they think they're going to get lucky." She told the boy. He may have only been four, but he had the senses of a Hanyou. Something like sex was not something you could hide from a four year old child with a sensitive nose and hearing. All Daisuke children knew about the actions between man and woman sexually, from a very young age. However, they were also taught, that such actions was not morally right until one was much older. Naruto grinned impishly, realising what the men wanted from his sister.

"Are they?" He teased her. She shook her head, her long red hair fluttering.

"Not on their lives." Was the response before she tugged on his hand, still holding hers. "Come on. I can see a fairy floss machine from here." At the mention of fairy floss, the four year old forgot all about the young men and pulled his sister forward quickly, in a rush to get to the fairy floss she could see. They made a few more circuits of the festival together. They were currently somewhere in Whirlpool Country, and for the night, their parents had vanished, wanting some alone time, so Karuma was charged with brother watching duty. Not that she minded. She adored her little brother. They had just finished their fairy floss when she noticed four men, all roughly her age, standing nearby. They were shinobi. Just their stances told her that, let alone the animal masks they were wearing. Her eyes swept over them lazily as she looked around. '_Konohagakure hitai-ites. They're from Tousan's village.'_ She realised. Naruto meanwhile didn't even notice them.

"Oneechan! Look at those fireworks! Do you think that Otousan's village has fireworks in their festivals?" She tilted her head back slightly to look at the little boy sitting on her shoulders. He peeked over the top of her head, grinning at her like a Cheshire cat. She watched as one of the men looked at them and stiffened, before getting the other three's attention.

"I'm sure they do Naru-chan. Most villages have fireworks."

"Don't you like fireworks Oneechan?" Naruto asked, his cute face pouting. The young woman chuckled at that, focusing her attention fully back on her brother now that they'd passed the Konoha ANBU by, although she could feel their presences, following them.

"Of course I like fireworks."

"We can show you better ones." She turned slightly, with Naruto on her shoulders, to see the young men from before lounging over a railing and stone bench, leering at her.

"No thanks." She told them simply, turning to walk off. They stood fluidly as one, surrounding her and her brother and keeping pace with them. Karuma kept walking, her pace staying steady and casual, her body relaxed. Naruto tensed slightly, not liking the way the men were following them, or looking at his sister.

"Oneechan." He said it quietly.

"It's okay Naruto." She replied calmly. He relaxed instantly. His sister would never let anything hurt him.

"Oneechan huh? Well why don't you let me take care of your little brother, and you can have some fun with the others huh?" One of the men asked, leaning forward to grab at Naruto, who squealed and clung to Karuma. She turned suddenly, her fist ramming itself into the man's stomach.

"Touch my Itouto-kun and I will kill you." She told him coldly. The others stared as he puked on the floor. Karuma shifted so that none of the men could touch her, and that none of the vomit would hit her boots. One of the other men came forward and she ducked, pulling Naruto from her shoulders and placing him behind her as a snarl ripped from her throat. The men backed up, fear slicing through them at her eyes at the feral change in her.

"Y-you're a monster!" One of them cried out. A kunai was placed against his throat, the cold metal tickling his skin as he swallowed thickly.

"Actually, she's the Daisuke Clan heiress." Said the calm voice behind him. The men glanced to find they were surrounded by four Konoha ANBU.

"Konoha ANBU. Stay out of this. This is none of your concern." One of the men told them firmly. The ANBU shook their heads.

"It is our concern." They replied. The men sneered.

"Oh yer? Well if it's your concern why don't you take the little boy and go? He's the only reason she's turning us down." Karuma chuckled as she stood gracefully, slinging Naruto back up onto her shoulders.

"No he's just a polite excuse to say no." She replied as she moved toward the Konoha shinobi. "There is no way in hell I'd ever sleep with something that smells like unwashed feet. Even a Hanyou like me has better standards." She bared her teeth at them as she passed, calling out some of her demonic side, causing her mismatched eyes to glow as her features became more feral and fox-like.

"You're joking! We're the best you'd ever get you little dog." She froze.

"Did you just… call me… a dog?" she said quietly. The silence was so thick that even the Konoha shinobi were a little uneasy.

"What about it? You _are_ a dog." The man stated, sneering. Karuma chuckled as she turned towards him.

"Naruto go sit on the nice ANBU's shoulders for a minute okay?" Her little brother nodded and jumped over to the ANBU, sitting on the shoulders of one.

"You teach them Oneechan!" He called out to her. The ANBU glanced at him. Karuma swivelled her neck, cracking it before she sighed and fixed the man with a dangerous glare. He closed his eyes as she came closer. Only for her to flick his forehead with her fingers painfully.

"Ba-ka!" She told him. "I'm a _fox_ Hanyou, not a _dog_ Hanyou." With that she pushed him over the railing to the beach below with one finger. She turned to look at his friends, raising an eyebrow and they gulped and jumped over the railing after him. Naruto climbed down from the ANBU and raced over to her as she leaned against the railing, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Arigato for your help. How did you know who we are?" She asked the ANBU quietly as her little brother climbed up her frame to sit on her shoulders again.

"Naruto looks like Yondaime-sama." They answered calmly. She opened one eye, peeking up at her little brother who smiled at her sweetly and hugged her head.

"You're the best Oneechan. Fighting off the bad guys like that. Can we get some Ramen?" An exasperated sound left her mouth.

"Ramen? You want Ramen? You just had fairy floss, chicken tenders, ice cream, sushi, rice balls, dango and Kami knows how many sweets and you want Ramen?" The ANBU chuckled as Naruto nodded vigorously. A smile slipped across Karuma's face. "Alright you, let's go get some Ramen." He cheered as she turned to the ANBU. "Would you like to accompany us ANBU-san? You're Naruto's first meeting with any of our Otousan's people and neither of us knows very much about Konoha." The ANBU shared a look before shrugging and nodding at her. Naruto talked to them excitedly the whole way to the Ramen stand.

"What happened to my quiet little brother who doesn't talk much?" She demanded as she deposited him onto the seat next to her, the ANBU sitting around them at the table they'd taken. Naruto just grinned at her.

"Had sugar." He replied with an eager glint in his blue eyes. She rolled her eyes.

"Remind me not to be in the hotel when you wake up Otousan tomorrow." She told him with a grin.

"He's going to kick your butt." The four year old said with a grin. "You know he hates it when you let me have lots of sugar." She shrugged as the waitress came over.

"Mah, but I'm just looking out for Otousan's health. Chasing you around and trying to get you to calm down and then chasing me around trying to strangle me for letting you have lots of sugar is really good exercise for him." Karuma whined well naturedly. The little boy had begun giggling at that just as the waitress arrived. She smiled down at him.

"Ohayo. What can I get you all?" She asked, not seeming bothered by the masks the ANBU were wearing. Karuma got the feeling that shinobi frequented this stand a lot.

"Ohayo. Two Miso Ramen, two pork Ramen and…?" She glanced at her companions.

"Another miso Ramen."

"Same."

"Pork Ramen thanks."

"Do you have any dango?" The waitress nodded as she wrote down their orders before leaving with a smile.

"Neh Oneechan?" Naruto asked, remembering something from the other day.

"Hmm?" she asked him, her gaze sliding over to him as she rested her head on her hand.

"The other day, I heard Kaasan telling Tousan something, and I'm not sure I understand what she meant."

"Were you eavesdropping again?"

"I didn't mean to!"

The four Konoha ANBU listened closely. This was the first time they'd met Jiraiya's two younger children. It became aware to them very quickly that the four year old boy was _very_ intelligent, and that he was very close to his older sister, something that the shinobi would have thought weird considering the age gap between the girl and boy. They also realised that Karuma's intentions hadn't necessarily been to learn about Konoha, but to allow the men to get to know her and Naruto a little, so that they could tell Minato what they were like.

"What did you hear?"

"Well. Kaasan was telling Tousan that when I start school in Tousan's village, you're going to go to school with me in your fox form every day, and that even when I'm a big kid and I have a sensei and something Kaasan called a Genin team, you're still going to be with me sometimes until I reach a certain age. Why is that?" The shinobi looked at the young woman as she studied her brother. They weren't sure they agreed with such an idea. It was unheard of. She sighed and stirred the glass of water with ice sitting in front of her gently with one long clawed fingernail.

"You remember why we had to live far away right?" Naruto nodded.

"The bad guys burnt down our home and killed lots of our family because they wanted to steal our bloodline and make it their own." He told her. She nodded.

"Well, the bad guys are still going to be after our bloodline, and the best way to ensure that they get the strongest genetic of the bloodline for their purposes is to obtain someone from the Head family. So you, me and Kaasan. Now, Kaasan and I are too old and too strong, but you, you're just little. You know what happens if you get stuck in your fox form?" The little boy nodded as understanding dawned on the ANBU.

"If you stay in your fox form for too long you can get stuck that way and then become just a normal fox." He answered quietly. The ANBU's eyes widened. They hadn't known that such a thing was possible. Karuma nodded firmly.

"Exactly. Because you're so young, it wouldn't be hard for them to do that, so, Kaasan wants me with you at all times to protect you." She told him.

"But you do protect me Oneechan! You never go out and be with the people your age! Even when they don't smell like unwashed feet!" The ANBU chuckled at that. Karuma smiled.

"It's not that I don't hang with people my age, it's just that you keep trying to set me up with strangers in every village and town we come to." She told him sternly. He grinned impishly before frowning.

"But what about when I'm one of those Genin things? Won't I have a sensei to protect me then?"

"Having me around isn't just to protect you. It's to protect your sensei and teammates." Was the quiet reply. The ANBU shook their heads in confusion.

"What do you mean?" One asked her curiously. "Our Jounin can handle a kid." Her mouth twitched as her gaze slid to him before returning to Naruto.

"On the full moon, we revert to our fox forms unwillingly. The fox inside us is _incredibly_ strong at those times. For that night, the next day and the following night, we are stuck in our fox form and can't return to our human forms. Until a male Daisuke turns 14, he must be accompanied by someone older."

"Why?"

"Because he loses himself to his fox side. His alpha instincts are too strong, and there have been cases where one of our young males has accidentally raped someone because his fox side was in control." She said. The men's eyes widened.

"But if you're there Oneechan, you're a much bigger alpha then I am and I won't hurt anyone!" The little boy said, smiling up at his sister with complete trust. She chuckled.

"Exactly. If you ever lost yourself to your fox, I'd be there to tan your hide."

"What happens after you turn 14?"

"You spend that time stuck as a fox and completely bored." She replied calmly to the ANBU's question. It made sense that they were curious. After all, they didn't have much to do with the Daisuke Clan, outside of communicating with her cousin Saya.

"So you'll be accompanying Naruto everywhere until he's 14? Won't that be noticed, I mean, you know, a tall pretty young woman hanging around a team all the time is noticeable."

"I'll be in my fox form, we can change our size if we want, so most of the time I'll just be a Kit asleep on his head or something." Naruto grinned up from his Ramen at the ANBU as they magically ate the Ramen without removing their masks. He pointed at the one who's just spoken.

"Did you call my sister pretty? Look Oneechan, he doesn't smell like unwashed feet, what about this guy?" Karuma choked on the mouthful of Ramen she'd been about to eat. The amused ANBU beside her pounded her back gently until she could breathe, while the ANBU Naruto was pointing to, slapped his mask where his forehead would be. She turned her mismatched eyes on her foxily grinning brother.

"WILL YOU STOP SETTING ME UP WITH STRANGERS!" He pouted as she yelled half-heartedly at him.

"But we don't _know_ anyone, so it's not like I can set you up with them." He reminded her. Her eye twitched and a vein in her forehead appeared before a foxy smile spread across her face.

"Oh Itouto-kun?" She inquired sweetly, smiling prettily at her little brother. He edged away on his seat slightly, knowing she was up to something.

"What?"

"If you don't stop try setting me up with people, I'll tell Tousan what happened to his manuscript." The little boy paled.

"I didn't mean to accidentally set it alight! Please don't tell Tousan!" He begged her, grabbing her arm and pleading, his big blue eyes brimming with crocodile tears. She laughed at that and ruffled his hair.

"Relax kiddo. He'd only kill me not you for not putting the fire out in the first place." Naruto grinned and did a happy dance at the knowledge his sister wasn't going to dob him in. The ANBU watched the two of them as brother and sister lightly bantered back and forth.

"You are not what we expected." One of them said quietly. Karuma paused halfway through lifting her chopsticks to her mouth and raised her eyebrows, completely ignoring how unfeminine it made her appear.

"And what did you expect?"

"Someone more like the noble families of our village. Someone cold and superior who puts themselves above others." An amused glint went through her mismatched eyes. The four ANBU found those two mismatched eyes mesmerising.

"We are fox Hanyou. We do not do cold and superior. We do sly and tricky." She replied with a foxy grin. "Besides, we'd never make friends if we were like that." She shrugged. "We can be cruel and cold, but only ever in battle and only ever when it is absolutely necessary. Foxes are jokers and clowns, and we embrace that part of ourselves." The ANBU nodded at her explanation. Beside her, Naruto yawned. Glancing down at him, Karuma leaned forward to look at the clock on the wall before sighing. She put enough money on the table to cover for all of their meals before scooping up the sleepy four year old. "Arigato for joining us for tea. Give our love to Minato-Oniisan and cousin Saya." She told them before bowing and carrying her little brother out of the Ramen Stand. He waved goodbye to the watching ANBU over his sister's shoulder before burying his head against her shoulder and going to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

(Author's Note: Wretched Yuri: Welcome! This is my second story to be uploaded to For those of you who have read It Runs In the Family, I hope you enjoy this story as much as the other, and to newcomers who haven't read either story, all I can say is that I hope you like my little version of Naruto. Enjoy chapter 2 guys.)

**Chapter 2**

"Tousan, Tousan, Tousan, Tousan, wake up Tousan, Tousan, Tousan, wake up Tousan!" Naruto chanted jumping on his father on his side of the hotel bed he was sharing with Mishota. Jiraiya groaned as he rolled over. Naruto was only ever this energetic if he ate a lot of sugar.

"Wha?" Jiraiya mumbled unintelligibly. It had been late when he and Mishota had returned to their hotel rooms, to find their children fast asleep in their respective bedrooms.

"I'm hungry Tousan! Make me breakfast please?!" His son begged, jumping around still. Jiraiya grumbled as he pulled himself out of bed. Mishota mumbled under her breath and rolled over. Jiraiya felt his eye twitch with annoyance as he looked at his wife and then his son. Naruto had learnt at a very young age that Mishota slept like the dead and couldn't be woken, whilst Jiraiya slept a lot lighter, and if Naruto pestered him for long enough, he'd wake up. Eyeing his son's unusually exuberant behaviour, Jiraiya stumbled through the hotel rooms. Knocking on his daughter's door and opening her door when there was no reply, he found it empty, her bed neatly made and her things neatly packed as they were every morning. His eye twitched again. He hated it when Karuma let Naruto have lots of sugar and then vanished the next morning when the sugar rush caught up to the boy, leaving Jiraiya to deal with him alone. With a groan, Jiraiya continued on to the kitchen, not even listening to Naruto as the little boy rambled about anything and everything, promising himself that he would get payback on his daughter.

Sitting quietly on the sand in a secluded little beach, Karuma cracked open an eyelid and glanced around at her surroundings. She could have _sworn_ she just felt someone walking over her grave. '_Otousan must be awake.'_ A small smile tugged the corner of her mouth as she sank into her morning meditation, ignoring the presences that were the ANBU as they watched her from a safe distance.

Jiraiya was slumped at the kitchen table, exhausted, as Naruto raced around and around the apartment. Karuma entered the apartment, and met her father's glare. Her gaze turned to her little brother. She caught him effortlessly by the back of his collar, lifting him up as his knees curled up like the Kit he was. She shook him in their father's direction.

"Tousan's tired and grumpy. Come on. We'll go to the forest and you can run your energy off. We might play tag if there are no humans around." She turned and left with her little brother, who voiced a sheepish gomen over his shoulder to Jiraiya. As soon as the door was shut, the man sighed as he returned to the room he was sharing with his wife. She stirred as he climbed into bed.

"What are you doing back? I thought I heard a noisy Naruto?"

"Karuma's taken him to the forest to play tag." Mishota frowned slightly as she sat up, resting her hand on her husband's chest as she looked at him.

"Did you tell her too?"

"No. She took one look at me and grabbed him and left." He admitted, looking at his wife. She sighed.

"She's always been like that." She murmured. Jiraiya shrugged as he stroked her hand where it rested on his chest.

"She does it to help out and be useful, you know that. We don't have the energy to mind Naruto all the time, she does. She enjoys spending time with him." None the less, Jiraiya felt just as guilty as Mishota did. Ever since they'd left on this travelling trip almost a year ago, whenever Jiraiya and Mishota wanted some alone time, or weren't in good moods, their daughter would take her brother and give them some peace and quiet.

Both adults quickly fell asleep, knowing their son was safe with his sister, while two blurs moved through the forest. One was rather small and golden, and the other larger and bright red. The two blurs remained this way the entire day, playing together through the forest. When they returned to the apartment, Naruto was sitting on Karuma's shoulders, his head and arms on top of her head, yawning sleepily. Jiraiya and Mishota were at the kitchen table, waiting for them. Tea was spread across the table and little Naruto's nose started quivering as he smelt the food. Blinking open his little eyes, he climbed down from his sister's shoulders and plonked himself onto his seat, acting more like the quiet, withdrawn child he was, rather than the sugar high crazy kid. Karuma ruffled his hair as she sat down next to him, although even she showed some signs of tiredness. Racing through a forest with a kid all day can get pretty exhausting.

"We heard you met some of Konoha's ANBU yesterday." Jiraiya commented as Karuma filled her plate with food, while Mishota filled Naruto's.

"They helped us out of a situation." She replied in her calm, quiet way.

"So they said. What happened?"

"Some boys wanted to have fun with Oneechan but she told them no. They didn't like that." Naruto replied, lifting his head from the table to glance at his father before yawning. Jiraiya and Mishota turned their gazes on Karuma as she shrugged. They were well aware that their daughter attracted a lot of male attention.

"They smelt like unwashed feet." She explained crossing her hands patiently in her lap as she waited for everyone else to be ready. Her father chuckled at that. They all picked up their chopsticks, and with a chorus of 'Itadakimasu' began eating.

"We're going home tomorrow." Jiraiya said suddenly. Brother and sister stopped eating and looked at their parents before sharing a look. Identical grins spread across their faces, and even though one was blonde and blue eyed with whisker marks, and the other was a redhead with mismatched eyes and weird eye markings, their grins were identical in the faces of brother and sister. Their parents both chuckled at that and Mishota's eyes softened as she regarded her two children.

"We thought it was time to go home and have a rest before we move to Konoha." She told them, still chuckling. Mother and father watched as their son did a happy dance in his seat, but it was the glow of joy in their daughter's mismatched eyes that touched them the most. They both sighed mentally. Karuma was such a solitary creature. She preferred the sky and the forest and the streams to being with people.

The first thing they did when they arrived back at the cottage was straighten the place up. After a year of their absence, it needed re-painting, sweeping, dusting and airing. Karuma flew through the chores she'd been given to do and raced off into the forest. Mishota watched her go from the window, knowing what it was that had her daughter pulling away from her humanity. When the clan had been killed, Mishota had used a forbidden demon technique to seal all of their bodies into a scroll, and had taken their loved ones with them. Once they'd found this cottage, she and her daughter had found a place in the forest that they thought was nice, and had dug the graves for their kin. When Jiraiya arrived, he joined them and helped. There had been 300 people in their Clan. Now, only 4 were living. One grave Karuma had dug by herself, a little way off from the others. The grave for her best friend Ren. From a young age, they had been arranged to by married, but neither of them had cared. When they'd first been told to get to know each as children, they'd fought 24/7. From that grew one of the strongest and deepest friendships Mishota had ever seen. The two had been joined at the hip. And he had died in Karuma's arms, protecting her as she protected Naruto while Mishota tried protecting everyone. Mishota knew that Karuma missed Ren. It was written all over her face. Out in the forest, the young woman dropped down beside the grave. It had been testimony to her father's ability to make things, that each grave had a marker, with that person's name on it.

"Ohayo Ren. I'm sorry I've been gone so long." She whispered, tenderly trailing her fingers across his name on his marker as her mismatched eyes swept over the clearing, filled with 296 graves. (A/N: It's a big clearing okay?)

She proceeded to sit and talk about the family's travels, about her parents, Naruto and having to move to Konoha. She was quiet after a while, just sitting, knees tucked up under her chin as her arms wound around her legs. She was aware that her parents were worried about her. It wasn't right for her to spend so much time out in the forest, in her fox form, away from people. She sighed. She missed Ren. She missed his fly away locks of bright red hair, his violet coloured eyes and his carefree laughter.

"I miss you so much Ren." She murmured, her gaze dropping back down to his grave. The saddest thing was that she knew it was time to move on with her life.

"Hey kiddo." She glanced to her left as Jiraiya sat next to her.

"Tousan."

"I thought I'd find you here." He told her, looking around the clearing. They were quiet after that, Karuma playing with the grass by her feet while Jiraiya simply sat next to her, smoking his pipe and writing down ideas for his next novel.

She found it amusing that her father was the author of a smutty series called Icha Icha, but he wrote other novels as well, and those were quite good to read. Most people thought Jiraiya was a clown, and a pervert. He was both of those things, but he was also a very perceptive, serious man. Being a clown and acting like an idiot was simply his way of dealing with the things he'd done and seen in his life as a shinobi. She was very close to both of her parents, but she couldn't talk to them about her problems, she was far too secretive for that. This was why she was always glad that her father could read her like an open book. He didn't need her to tell him what was wrong, he just knew.

"Leaving will be good for me won't it?" She asked quietly. Jiraiya nodded. "Being around people my own age will help me jump out of the grave I'd put myself in with Ren when I buried him." Jiraiya looked over at his daughter, puffing on his pipe. He understood what she meant when she said that. Most people would have been confused by it. But her father understood that she meant that she'd shut herself away, thrown away her happiness, left it with the dead form of her best friend.

"Yes it will." He told her. "Ren wouldn't want you moping around and slowly reverting to a normal fox just because he's no longer around. He'd want you to be happy." She sniffled slightly as tears worked their way down her face. Her chin wobbled as she fought the tears she hadn't let herself cry in public for years. Jiraiya put his writing materials away and scooted over beside his daughter, wrapping his arms around her in a hug. She broke down then, tears pouring down her face as she sobbed loudly, burying her face against her father's shoulder. It took quite a while for her crying to subside, but then, it had been bottled up for such a long time. When she was done crying she simply sat in her father's arms as he rocked her gently back and forth, before pulling back slightly.

"Tell me a story Tousan." She asked him as she wiped her face on the back of her hand.

"A story huh?" Jiraiya commented, tapping his chin. "Well, there was this one time when…" Karuma smiled as her father began recounting a story of his life to her before chuckling at what he was saying.


End file.
